The X-Files Season 5, Episode 9: Schizogeny

In every season of The X-Files, there is at least one completely incomprehensible episode. In season five, that episode is 'Schizogeny'.

Because seriously, I don't get it.

The trees are behind all of this? Or Karin is? Or she's controlling the trees? What?

OK, there really isn't much to say about this episode. I didn't like it. Though that might also have something to do with having driven four hours before watching it and being rather tired at the time. I don't think it will hold up on repeated viewings, either.

The worst part, I think, is that I'm not really sure whether or not the teenagers were actually victims of their own parents' abuse or just victims of Karin's abusive therapy. I mean, she clearly took advantage of them, but given that we were never shown any kind of abuse against them at the hands of their (Karin's) victims, I'm not entirely sure what to believe. And that's not a good thing when we're talking about abuse.

Because where is this episode going with that? Is it suggesting that victims of abuse will become abusers because it's the only way they can cope? Because no. Or is it suggesting that victims of abuse are susceptible to suggestion? No, don't do that, either. There's a lot of bad here, most of it due to the extreme vagueness of the episode.

Oh, right, and the fact that at the end, it's apparently all about trees anyway.

So instead, I'm going to talk a little about the production, because I've learned some interesting things.

I noticed during the episode that Mulder's "dorkweed" line looked dubbed, and I was pretty sure he was saying "dickweed," but didn't really think much of it until I read on Wikipedia that he did, in fact, say "dickweed" and that FOX's standards and practices department made them dub the line over.

There were elements of this episode that reminded me a bit of the third season episode, 'D.P.O.', but maybe it was just the presence of possibly evil teenagers that did that. It turns out, though, that one of the actors from that episode appeared in this one, too, as Lisa's aunt.

I learned that Lisa herself was played by the daughter of the X-Files production designer, and that the actor who played Bobby had previously been in absurdly bad episode of another series when he played Dave in Buffy's epic 1990s disaster, 'I Robot... You Jane'. I thought he looked familiar!

The scene in which Mulder drives into a tree - or really, a tree drives into Mulder - reminded me of two things, one of which was the obvious comparison to the Whomping Willow first introduced in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The other thing it reminded me of is probably better not described explicitly, but instead described with a single quote: "I am a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."

At least in Mulder's case, he was able to duck.